2. ffiffi & fuuffiffi
nfilliams
ter in a
Indiana,
carved o1t:
is a loog"distarce call, or at bes
line that charges ten aeRts a;
online access. wiltiams {tissed
calling to the lntemet by only a i
dred yards.
"We shoutd all be writing ou
about this," says Williams. "Al
went into creating the lotemet and 1
Writing your congressman is a good,idea,
but if your business is io a rural area with-
out local dial-up for ihe lnternet or you!
favorite online service, you might consider :
these ideas.
Buy A Foreign Exchange Line
ff williams were so inclined, he couldhe
order a Fofl wa).ne telephone line lor his
house. gith a forelgn exchange, or FX line, caling Fdrt
vayne would be like making a local call. Pet-minute, long-
distance charges to Fort lFayne would vanish. A1as, forelgn
exchange lines aren't cheap, costing as much as $2 to $5 per
mile per month.
Fol a business, this decision requires a cost-benefit ana.ly-
sis. Assuming an initial installation charge of $350 and a
monthly charge of $125, someone using the Intemet six
careful research.
number with the_::-.- --_-r__-__- __'. -
r ?s.the downtown alea of your des'
outlyiug area, a suburb or a
to make local calls to
the metropolis you are trying to reach. A foreign exchange
line to the village iust beyond the big citl, might iust do the
trick and save you money evefy month to boot. Every mile
you save is money in the bank. But before you sign on the
dotted line, take this final precaution. Drive to the smaller
hamlet with a roll of quarters, stop at a pay phone, and dial
the numbers you need to reach. If you find your number
cannot be completed as dialed, keep driving.
sept/oct 1996. online Use, ,a l
in nrral areas jusl canl get to it.'

3. Foreign exchange tines may pay
other dividends as well. You can
order
^
pizza from the tafget city and
not be chafged for a long-distance
call! More seriously, iI you have cus-
tomefs, or a corporate headquarters
in the nearby metlopolis, they may
appreciate avoiding long-distance
charges to call you.
Use Someone Else's Foreign
Exchange Line
V4ile Williams was paying ten cents a
minute to make longdistance calls to
reach the Intemet, his neighbors weie
lobbying Fort Wayne Intemet, a small
locallyowned krtemet sereice provider,
to aflzmge s€fvice to Aubum.
An Internet service provider can
buy foreign exchange lines for less
than you can, thanks to bulk pricing.
On the other hand, if someone else
owns lhe foreign exchange lines,
you may be inconvenienced by a
busy signal. If that's a problem, insist
that your lnternet service provider
buy more lines. You may discover
that busy signals are more common
after business hours when home
users log on. Timing your online
usage to the mofning hours may be
the best alternative.
Since Fort Wayne Intemet opened
up shop, several flational Intemet ser-
vice providers have begun senice in
Fort Wa).oe. Despite competition in
the metro area, Fort Wayne Intemet
enioys a near monopoly in the outtying
areas thanks to its foreign exchange
lines. Point this out to any local
lntemet pfovider who uses cost to
resist installing foreign exchange lines
to youf afea.
Call Your Phone Company
Rural telephone coopemtives,
founded in areas whefe investors
couldn't foresee making a profit, have
discovered second careers as Intemet
service providers. Typical is the Horry
Telephone Cooperative in Conway,
South Carolina. Serving 65,000 sub-
scribers in two predomioantly rural
counties, the cooperative added
Intemet access in Juty 1995. A year
later more than 1,000 people have
sigfled up for accounts, and the flum-
ber is gowing by 20 a day, sa].s com-
pany spokesman Corey Ray.
In lowa, 130 independent tele-
phone companies belong to Iowa
Network Services, which among other
services, wholesales Internet access to
it members, who then retail it to Lheir
subscribers for $25 to $40 a month.
Their spokeswoman, Judy Ianholz,
said INS also services some border
communities in Nebraska, Iowa,
Illinois, and Missouri.
Of course, if you are in an afea
served by a rural telephone company,
you probably aheady know it. And
there may not be a point in subscribing
ifyou live too far from one. Once, Iowa
Network Services had Intemet cus-
tomeis in all 48 contiguous states, but
today its 15-cents-per'minute 800-line
is no longer competitive.
Look To The Public Sector
The state of Ifldiana has made $2 mi.l-
lion available to tocal cornmunities to
obtain Internet access through its
Access Indiana program. It may be well
worth it to ask your state Sovefirment
or even local library or school to see
what's available.
Targeting school corporations is
DirectNet, a private company based in
Dallas that sells not only Internet
access to schools, but software and
even lesson plans based on Wodd
Wide teb sites. Schools that paflici
pate can choose to sell DirectNet
accounts to the community at large
and keep part of rhe $19.95 monthly
charge to buy computer equipment.
Dir:ectNet is not in the business of prc
viding rural Iflternet accesspel se, but
some of its schools are in nrra.l loca-
tions and there is lrothing to stop a
business from buying a DirectNet
account through a participating
school. According to DirectNet's chief
financial officer, Scott Walker, access
is either through a local number or a
free 8oGline.
Learn To Telnet
Telneting, the ability to log onto a
distant compule, system. is espe-
cially useful for lural users. For
instance, if you don't have a local
Compuserve node, but do haye a
local Intemet Service provider, you
can use your Internet service
provider to telnet to Compuserve.
You can even use WinCIM version
1.4 or latet to do it. Here's how.
Create a new Session Setting in
WinClM, charging the dial tone to
direct and the port setting to
Winsock. Call your Internet service
provider, log on normally, then start
WiflCIM afld log onto Compuserve.
Tekreting can seem slower alrd more
awkv/ard than normal dial-up access,
especially if dre Intemet is crowded.
But it does seem to move at acceptable
speeds during business houis and you
can't beat the savings. Telneting can
cut your Compuserve bill by two-thirds
by avoiding the need to use their for-
fee 8o0number.
America Online also allows its
Windows customers to use TCP Ppic
tocol to reach its service, said spoke$
v/oman Kathy Johnson. Prodigy expects
to add telneting by September.
lust rvait
rith the explosion of interest in the
Intemet, it may be only a matter of
months before iflexpensive access
becomes available fiom the comei of
every comfield. MCI is working on a
satellite-based system that is two years
away, according to Craig sm)the,
MCI'S Intemet Specialist in Indianapolis.
For the cost of all l&inch dish, (about
$3000), ard a monthly charge, rural
users could have access. Inclement
weather wouldn't foul tlle transmission
as easily as it does similar television
reception because the signal would be
digital. However, given the two-way
nature of the communication, you
wouldn't be able to use your regular
television dish.
But you many not have to wait even
that loAg. Smlthe estimates that an
entrepreneur with $25,000 to invest
can set up shop as an Internet seryice
provider and make a profit with as a
few as 300 subscribers. (MCI lequires
1 ,000 subscribers before adding a local
number, he said.) So it may be only a
matter of moflths before someone
comes to yoru area with a good deal
on Intemet access.
In the meantime, there's nothing
wroflg with writing your Congrcssman.
Daurd N, Ber.son is a freelance writel
and tbe chief coP! ed.itor of Te
Evening Star ln Aubulrt, Incllana. In
his quest for lnternet access, be has
Paid. far nore in lonq-d.istance
cbarges tban be uoul.d. ca.re to a.d.mit.
He can be reacbed at 76352.2506@
cornaasen)e.com. olt
1z+ htQ//www.onlineinc.con'/oluser